Question: I’m kind of confused by what “accessibility” actually refers to. What does accessibility mean?
Response:
This is an excellent question! We are so used to using words and acronyms, especially in special ed, that we don't remember to actually say what we're talking about...
The basic idea for accessibility in this context is to make documents that are able to be 'read' by assistive technology, such as a screen reader for someone who needs the text read aloud, or to be able to covert the text to Braille. It's not just 'reading' the body of the material, but it involves things like meaningful descriptions of pictures, useful column and row titles, the order that tabbing that navigates you through a web page, indicating where a link will actually go, etc. That's where us old-time special ed technology people are coming from.
There is a law* that requires all information that is available electronically by any agency that receives federal money to make their materials accessible to all users (including accessible forms, captioned video, etc). One of the groups sponsoring the workshop, the SC Assistive Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC), is made up of representatives from a variety of state agencies, including higher education. Since this law has been in place, most people think about making their information and resources accessible on the web, and that's the focus of most of the material you find about this topic.
Those of us in the disabilities field have been moving from making materials that work with specific assistive devices or for specific disability areas to the idea of 'universal design', which means building flexibility into our materials that allow users to be able to interact with the material in different ways. One user might need to enlarge the text, another might need all or part of the content read aloud, another user may be colorblind. Some users will not be able to scroll a mouse and may need to tab through the materials. Still others may need the text translated into another language. The laws do NOT expect us to make two different sets of electronic materials, one for the general population and one for people with special needs. (In fact, the policies acknowledges that it would be difficult to make or maintain equivalent versions, so multiple versions is actually discouraged.)
The need for universal design has become even more important with all the many electronic devices available to the wider population in almost every aspect of our lives. Like you suggest, users will need to access material from various places - and they will be using devices with different operating systems, with multiple sizes of screens, devices that allow resizing the text, voice recognition, etc, etc. The people who develop materials (and hardware) for these devices cannot possibly make equivalent versions of their materials for all the variations that currently exist, let alone whatever will become available in the near future. The solution is for everyone to make what we develop to be as flexible as possible from the beginning.
The topic of the presentation is to explore how to develop accessible Word, Excel and PowerPoint materials. There are certain features built into Microsoft Office - and many other programs and hardware - that allow us to develop the materials in an accessible way and that allows users to change the ways they interact with the materials. At the same time, if we use many of these accessibility features in the original materials, it also allows us to convert the materials into some other format and still maintain the flexibility for individual users or a variety of devices.
This explosion of the wide range of devices being used by a large portion of the population has helped the disability community tremendously. Not only has there been more awareness of the concept of universal design, but the technology industry is designing their equipment, operating systems, and content to be flexible. As a result, a person with a disability who needs larger/smaller text, sound/no sound, etc does not have to wait for someone to develop a separate set of materials for him or her to use.
Accessibility
Question:
I’m kind of confused by what “accessibility” actually refers to. What does accessibility mean?
Response:
This is an excellent question! We are so used to using words and acronyms, especially in special ed, that we don't remember to actually say what we're talking about...
The basic idea for accessibility in this context is to make documents that are able to be 'read' by assistive technology, such as a screen reader for someone who needs the text read aloud, or to be able to covert the text to Braille. It's not just 'reading' the body of the material, but it involves things like meaningful descriptions of pictures, useful column and row titles, the order that tabbing that navigates you through a web page, indicating where a link will actually go, etc. That's where us old-time special ed technology people are coming from.
There is a law* that requires all information that is available electronically by any agency that receives federal money to make their materials accessible to all users (including accessible forms, captioned video, etc). One of the groups sponsoring the workshop, the SC Assistive Technology Advisory Committee (ATAC), is made up of representatives from a variety of state agencies, including higher education. Since this law has been in place, most people think about making their information and resources accessible on the web, and that's the focus of most of the material you find about this topic.
Those of us in the disabilities field have been moving from making materials that work with specific assistive devices or for specific disability areas to the idea of 'universal design', which means building flexibility into our materials that allow users to be able to interact with the material in different ways. One user might need to enlarge the text, another might need all or part of the content read aloud, another user may be colorblind. Some users will not be able to scroll a mouse and may need to tab through the materials. Still others may need the text translated into another language. The laws do NOT expect us to make two different sets of electronic materials, one for the general population and one for people with special needs. (In fact, the policies acknowledges that it would be difficult to make or maintain equivalent versions, so multiple versions is actually discouraged.)
The need for universal design has become even more important with all the many electronic devices available to the wider population in almost every aspect of our lives. Like you suggest, users will need to access material from various places - and they will be using devices with different operating systems, with multiple sizes of screens, devices that allow resizing the text, voice recognition, etc, etc. The people who develop materials (and hardware) for these devices cannot possibly make equivalent versions of their materials for all the variations that currently exist, let alone whatever will become available in the near future. The solution is for everyone to make what we develop to be as flexible as possible from the beginning.
The topic of the presentation is to explore how to develop accessible Word, Excel and PowerPoint materials. There are certain features built into Microsoft Office - and many other programs and hardware - that allow us to develop the materials in an accessible way and that allows users to change the ways they interact with the materials. At the same time, if we use many of these accessibility features in the original materials, it also allows us to convert the materials into some other format and still maintain the flexibility for individual users or a variety of devices.
This explosion of the wide range of devices being used by a large portion of the population has helped the disability community tremendously. Not only has there been more awareness of the concept of universal design, but the technology industry is designing their equipment, operating systems, and content to be flexible. As a result, a person with a disability who needs larger/smaller text, sound/no sound, etc does not have to wait for someone to develop a separate set of materials for him or her to use.
- Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act.
The official site is at http://www.section508.gov/WebAIM http://webaim.org/ is a friendly site that has gobs of information about this topic.